warms hearts & hot beverages
by br0kenarr0w
Summary: Welcome to Barry and Iris Allen's hole-in-the-wall New York coffee shop, Colony. The place where everyone falls out and makes up, where relationships unfold and the staff play matchmakers. Oh, and Iris is having a hard time keeping her husband sane. [Human AU. it wouldn't fit, but Teen Wolf is included too]


**okay, before everyone murders me - I've never read The Flash comics. And since 'Flash' season one hasn't started yet, Iris is purely based on how I think Candice Patton will portray her.**

**Enjoy :)**

* * *

"No - Don, _don't _- for the love of - _Iris_!"

Iris' lips turn up into a small smile, swinging her legs off the sofa and leaving her copy of _Cloud Atlas_ on the coffee table, she pads into the kitchen where her husband looks at the complete end of his tether. "Yes?"

Barry holds out the land-line to his wife. "Please talk your son out of dropping out of collage again?" He pleads.

Iris quirks an eyebrow at him, taking the phone from his hands. "Don?"

"Mom,_ I can't stay here_. All the professors are getting on my case and Dawn's not speaking to me because I wrecked her history assignment and -"

"Don Allen, you walk out those doors, don't think for a second your father and I are covering for you again." Iris tells him threateningly.

"But -" Don starts to protest.

"No buts. You are not dropping out of collage and expecting us to pay for you to go to another one."

Dead silence meets her words. Iris hears her son curse under his breath.

"Okay, fine." He admits defeat. "I'll stay another week, see how it goes."

"And apologize to your sister. That assignment took her weeks."

"_Mom _-"

"I love you, Don. Bye." She hangs up, passing the receiver back to her husband. "Better?" She beams at his astounded expression.

"You're incredible." Barry blurts.

"I know," Iris wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him. "That's why you married me."

Mock-offended, Barry gasps. "And loving you had nothing to do with it?"

Iris presses their noses together lovingly, still smiling. "That too."

Barry kisses her.

* * *

"Triple cappuccino, please." Felicity places her elbows on the counter, burying her face in her hands.

"Triple?" Stiles' eyebrows shoot up. "Working tonight?"

"Derek's keeping me in late, he's got some fundraiser to go to, and apparently that means the IT department have to work overtime." Felicity messages her temples. "Just don't tell him I came here, please? He'd fire me if I left the office to, like, go to the bathroom."

"Firing people is one of Derek Hale's many talents. Along with being a sourwolf, the incapability of cracking a smile -"

"- leaving the company for weeks on end without telling anybody, yelling at people just because _he's _having a bad day. I could go on all night." Felicity's eyes widen, "Oh God, don't tell him I said that."

"Said what?" Lydia appeared next to Stiles, looking as immaculate as ever.

"Felicity's ranting about work. And about Derek Hale being a dickface."

"Stiles Stilinski, I could get you reported for insulting customers." Lydia's eyes narrow.

"Yeah, but you won't because you agree with me." Stiles attempts - and fails - to stifle a grin. He slides Felicity's cappuccino towards her. "On the house." He winks. Felicity blushes. Lydia hits him with a dishcloth.

"Try not to forget who you're in a relationship with, Stilinski." She reminds him.

Stiles is all set to make a witty remark back, when Lydia seizes the front of his apron and pulls him into a heated kiss.

"Hey, Felic- oh, _Jeez_." Lyla shakes her umbrella out upon entering and rolls her eyes at Lydia and Stiles, with John hot in pursuit.

"What is it with the next generation and not being able to keep their hands to themselves?" John asks Felicity desperately.

She shrugs, sipping her cappuccino at a table. "Don't ask me. I barely see the light of day outside the office."

"But - _those two_ - seriously. Not needed, guys."

Lydia sticks her tongue out at him and goes back to taking orders from tables. Stiles looks dazed.

"Watch it, Dig." Barry emerges from the back, apron on, finishing drying a mug off. "Good job you didn't see Iris and I at the start of _our _relationship."

"Shutting up." True to his word, John pulls up a chair next to Lyla.

"Barry, Iris only agreed to date you because you stared at her like a lost puppy for days," Lyla laughs.

Barry looks genuinely horrified. "I did not!" Pausing, he turns to Felicity for support. "Did I?"

Felicity, frightened, jumps out of her seat, "Oh gosh is that the time?! I should be getting back - wouldn't want to lose my job -" she flees, cappuccino and all.

Frowning, Barry looks to Stiles. "Am I a puppy?"

"The most adorable in the pack, man." Stiles tells him.

"You're fired."

"No I'm not." Stiles shoots back happily at a fuming Barry.

* * *

Allison jumps when her sight suddenly disappears, bracing herself to kick the perpetrator in the nuts. Until they speak.

"Guess who."

"Isaac!" She wretches away and smacks his arm. "You do realise I could have broke something?!"

"What, like a nail?" Isaac's eyes gleam mischievously.

"Very funny." She kisses his cheek.

"Okay, I'm just gonna stop coming out here if all I see is PDA." Barry complains.

"Oh, leave them alone, Barry." Iris scolds, flapping a cloth at him.

"How?! The pair have them - _and _Stiles and Lydia - have been at it in here since their school day romances _started_ - which also happened in this very cafe!" Barry protests.

"Like we weren't _just _like that when we were younger?" Iris shoots back.

"Too much information!" Isaac puts in as Iris sets about making their usual order (_one black coffee with sugar, one iced tea and two of Barry's homemade brownies_).

"Oliver and Felicity been in yet?" Allison wonders out loud, taking a mouthful of her drink.

Barry pauses, giving his wife a knowing look. "Not yet."

Allison's eyes narrow. "You're not seriously considering _actually _locking them in a room together until one asks the other out, right?"

"Well it would work!"

Groaning, Isaac shakes his head. "Gotta have some patience with those two."

Iris rolls her eyes. "Not to agree with the locking-them-in-a-room plan, but it's been _four years_. And neither of them have made the first move. And they like each-other. Like,_ like like_, each-other."

"We sound like teenagers." Barry mutters. Iris ignores him.

"I, um, sort of had a plan?" Allison offers.

"Don't even think about locking them in the freezer." Isaac warns.

Allison smiles. "Nope. Better than that."

* * *

Oliver - still in his work suit - bursts into **_Colony _**in a full frenzy, all set to call the police at the text he received from Barry.

"I'm here, what's- oh."

The cafe was empty, save for Lydia and Barry at the counter and Felicity sat on her own at a table, awkwardly looking out a window. She blushes and smiles at Oliver.

"Iris tell you there's an emergency, too?" She asks him.

Realization hits. If looks could kill, Barry would be hung, drawn and quartered. Barry - feigning ignorance - gives Oliver a thumbs up and winks.

"Her other half, actually." Oliver sinks into the chair next to Felicity.

"So," She begins, not sure what to say.

Why did she get so flustered around the man?

Oh, right, because she _totally _hasn't been pining over him for the past four years.

"So," Oliver meets her eyes and feels himself melt.

Whenever he's with or around Felicity, it's as though all his guards and barriers break down; like he's completely open and free with her.

Which, really, is something he realized four years ago.

"Do you feel like we're getting pushed together by these people? I mean, who are they to make the decisions for us, right? Nobody, we shouldn't have to deal with this from people we consider as _friends _-"

"So you don't want to?" Oliver cuts her off. Felicity stops and visibly gulps, face heating up.

"I never said that." She says quietly.

A beat of silence.

"Neither did I." Oliver offers her a small smile.

Felicity's heartbeat gallops and she lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Oliver grins even wider when she starts to laugh.

"Felicity Smoak, would you do me the honor of coming to dinner with me tonight, and maybe sharing a glass of wine with me at my apartment afterwards, and perhaps seeing more of each-other after that?" Oliver asks her.

Still giggling, Felicity manages, "Yes, oh my God yes," and without warning grabs his shirt and kisses him. Oliver doesn't resist.

Barry is positively dancing around the kitchen in celebration with a laughing Lydia when John and Lyla walk in. Neither of them complain when they see Oliver and Felicity leave holding hands.

Lyla smiles widely at her grinning husband. "And about time, too."

John chuckles in agreement.

* * *

Iris' eyes widen as she takes in the scene before her. The dining room is lightened with nothing but the candles on the table, which is set with their best place-mats, the cutlery that's only used at Christmas, wine glasses and a bottle of wine.

Barry emerges from the kitchen, his work apron still on and a cloth thrown over his shoulder. He grins at her amazed expression.

"What's all this?" She asks him, bewildered.

Barry shrugs, placing his hands on her waist. "Just, everything with Oliver and Felicity and Stiles and Lydia and Allison and Isaac and John and Lyla...suppose it made me realise just how much you mean to me. And I know I don't tell you this enough, but I love you, Iris West-Allen." Their foreheads meet. "You mean the _world _to me - along with our beautifully irritating twin children. What I'm trying to say is, I love you, and I couldn't ask for a better person to spend the rest of my life with."

All of Iris' will power is taken up to stop herself from bursting into tears. Her heart swells at his words. She whispers "I love you, so much", and kisses him.

Later, when they're full of bistro roast chicken and brownies, tipsy on wine and drunk on love, and their stomach hurts from laughing so much, Iris falls asleep on Barry halfway through one of the DVD's Dawn left behind when she and Don went to collage, and as Barry starts to feel himself go under, he realizes that yes his employee's, friends and family drive himself and Iris absolutely mental, but really, neither of them wanted it any other way.

* * *

**Wow, I had far too much fun writing this.**

**Comments welcome :)**


End file.
